Method for establishing evolved packet system bearer and base station

ABSTRACT

A method and a device for establishing an evolved packet system EPS bearer are disclosed. The method includes establishing, by a first base station to which UE belongs, a first EPS bearer based on a first CC for the UE, wherein the first EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between the first base station and the UE; and instructing, by the first base station, a second base station to establish a second EPS bearer based on a second CC for the UE, wherein the second EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between the second base station and the UE. The present invention enables the UE to aggregate carriers of different frequency ranges from the first base station to which the UE belongs and the second base station to which the UE belongs to transmit data, thus improving the throughput of the data transmitted by the UE.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This present application is a continuation of International ApplicationNo. PCT/CN2012/072695, filed on Mar. 21, 2012 which is herebyincorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present invention relates to the technical field of communications,and particularly, relates to a method for establishing evolved packetsystem (EPS) bearer and a base station.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

To support transmission of a peak data rate up to 1 Gbits/s in acommunication system, a carrier aggregation (CA) technology has beenadopted as a method for expanding EPS bandwidth in a long term evolution(LTE) system at present. The main idea of the CA technology is toaggregate multiple component carriers (CC) into a carrier with arelatively larger bandwidth to support high-rate data transmission. FIG.1 is a schematic diagram of a bandwidth structure adopted fortransmitting data by adopting the CA technology in the related art. Asshown in the figure, the downlink channel bandwidth for transmittingdata is formed by aggregating five carriers of 20 MHz, including carrier1, carrier 2, carrier 3, carrier 4 and carrier 5, and it could beunderstood that the aggregated carriers may be continuous ordiscontinuous on a frequency domain.

CA may be divided into two types, one of which is intra-band CA, and theother one of which is inter-band CA. For the intra-band CA, becausemultiple aggregated carriers are on the same frequency band, thecoverage of data transmission of the carriers is consistent. For theinter-band CA, because the multiple aggregated carriers are on differentfrequency bands, when frequency ranges occupied by the frequency bandsare relatively further, the coverage difference of data transmission ofthe carriers is relatively larger. Generally, the carrier coverage oflow frequency ranges is large, and the carrier coverage of highfrequency ranges is relatively small. As shown in FIG. 2 which is aschematic diagram of different carrier coverage under the inter-band CAin the related art, the blank area is a range covered by 800 Mhzcarrier, the filled area is a range covered by 3 Ghz carrier, and itcould be seen that the range covered by the 3 Ghz carrier is smallerthan that covered by the 800 Mhz carrier.

It could be seen from FIG. 2 that, if a user equipment (UE) is in thecenter of a cell, the UE may simultaneously use a high-frequency carrierand a low-frequency carrier in the inter-band CA to transmit data,whereas if the UE moves to the margin of the cell, the UE cannot use thehigh-frequency carrier to transmit data, and the throughput of the datatransmitted by the UE at the margin of the cell declines much comparedwith that by the UE in the center of the cell.

Accordingly, to improve the throughput of the data transmitted by the UEat the margin of the cell and enlarge the coverage of the high-frequencycarriers, a relay node (RN) may be adopted at a network side of a cellto enlarge the coverage of the high-frequency carrier. FIG. 3 shows aschematic diagram of a network structure for enlarging the coverage ofhigh-frequency carriers in the related art, wherein two RNs are added tocontinuously adopt the high-frequency carrier to transmit data, thusenlarging the coverage of the high-frequency carrier. However, even ifthe coverage of the high-frequency carrier is enlarged by adopting theRN, if the UE at the margin of the cell wants to simultaneously use thecomponent carriers of high frequency range and low frequency range, theUE still needs to aggregate carriers from two different sites, namelythe carrier of the low frequency range comes from a macro base station(DeNB, Donor eNodeB), and the carrier of the high frequency range comesfrom an RN. This herein is called as inter-site CA.

Therefore, it is a problem to be solved how the UE aggregates differentcarriers from the DeNB and the RN to transmit the data so as to improvethe throughput of the data transmitted by the UE and enhance theexperience of the UE.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for establishingan EPS bearer and a base station, so that UE can realize inter-sitecarrier aggregation.

The technical solutions are realized as follows.

A method for establishing an evolved packet system EPS bearer includes:

determining, by a first base station to which a user equipment UE owninga first EPS bearer based on a first component carrier CC belongs, toestablish a second EPS bearer based on a second CC for the UE; and

initiating, by the first base station, a process of establishing thesecond EPS bearer for the UE.

A method for establishing an evolved packet system EPS bearer includes:

establishing, by a first base station to which a user equipment UEbelongs, a first EPS bearer based on a first component carrier CC forthe UE, the first EPS bearer being an EPS bearer between the first basestation and the UE; and

instructing, by the first base station, a second base station toestablish a second EPS bearer based on a second CC for the UE, thesecond EPS bearer being an EPS bearer between the second base stationand the UE.

A base station includes:

a determining unit, configured to determine to establish a secondevolved packet system EPS bearer based on a second component carrier CCfor a user equipment UE owning a first EPS bearer based on a first CCand trigger an initiating unit; and

the initiating unit, configured to initiate a process of establishingthe second EPS bearer for the UE.

A base station includes:

an establishing unit, configured to establish a first evolved packetsystem EPS bearer based on a first component carrier CC for a userequipment UE, the first EPS bearer being an EPS bearer between the firstbase station to which the UE belongs and the UE; and

an instructing unit, configured to instruct a second base station towhich the UE belongs to establish a second EPS bearer based on a secondCC for the UE, the second EPS bearer being an EPS bearer between thesecond base station to which the UE belongs and the UE.

According to the method and the base station provided in the embodimentsof the present invention, a first base station to which a UE belongsestablishes a first EPS bearer based on a first CC for the UE andinstructs to establish a second EPS bearer based on a second CC, whereinthe first EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between the first base station towhich the UE belongs and the UE, and the second EPS bearer is an EPSbearer between the second base station to which the UE belongs and theUE. Or, after a first base station to which a UE owning a first EPSbearer based on a first CC belongs determines to establish a second EPSbearer based on a second CC for the UE, the process of establishing thesecond EPS bearer for the UE is initiated. In this way, the UE cantransmit data with the first base station and the second base station towhich the UE belongs through two EPS bearers respectively, so that theUE aggregates different carriers from the first base station to whichthe UE belongs and the second base station to which the UE belongs totransmit the data, thus realizing inter-site carrier aggregation andimproving the throughput of the data transmitted by the UE.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a bandwidth structure adopted fortransmitting data by adopting a CA technology in the related art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of different carrier coverage underinter-band CA in the related art;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a network structure for enlarging thecoverage of high-frequency carriers in the related art;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method for establishing an EPS bearerprovided in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a structural schematic diagram of a system for establishing anEPS bearer provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a structural schematic diagram of a first device forestablishing an EPS bearer provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 is a structural schematic diagram of a second device forestablishing an EPS bearer provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a first specific embodiment of a method forestablishing an EPS bearer provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of a second specific embodiment of a method forestablishing an EPS bearer provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

To make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of thepresent invention clearer, the present invention is further illustratedin detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings andembodiments.

In the embodiments of the present invention, to improve the throughputof data transmitted by UE, the UE needs to aggregate different carriersfrom a DeNB and an RN respectively to transceive data, namely toaggregate carriers from different sites, wherein the sites are the DeNBor the RN. Accordingly, in an embodiment of the present invention, afirst base station to which the UE belongs establishes a first EPSbearer based on a first CC for the UE and instructs to establish asecond EPS bearer based on a second CC, wherein the first EPS bearer isan EPS bearer between the first base station to which the UE belongs andthe UE, and the second EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between a second basestation to which the UE belongs and the UE. Or, after a first basestation to which a UE owning a first EPS bearer based on a first CCbelongs determines to establish a second EPS bearer based on a second CCfor the UE, a process of establishing the second EPS bearer for the UEis initiated. In this way, the UE can transmit data with the first basestation and the second base station to which the UE belongs through twoEPS bearers respectively, and the UE aggregates different carriers fromthe first base station to which the UE belongs and the second basestation to which the UE belongs to transmit the data, thus realizinginter-site carrier aggregation and improving the throughput of the datatransmitted by the UE. It should be noted that the site in theembodiments is a serving node of a UE in a broad sense, and may becollectively called as base station, including eNB in a narrow sense andor including a node capable of serving the UE such as a relay node RN, amicro base station and the like. The DeNB to which the UE belongs in theembodiment of the present invention is the one synchronizing with the UEcurrently.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the first base station towhich the UE belongs may be a DeNB to which the UE belongs, and thesecond base station to which the UE belongs may be an RN to which the UEbelongs. Further, in a heterogeneous network, besides the DeNB and theRN, various micro base stations such as Pico eNB, Home eNB and the likemay also exist. Accordingly, by substituting a Pico eNB or a Home eNBfor the RN in the embodiment of the present invention, under thecondition that the UE accesses to two different base stations, currentmultiple EPS bearers of the UE may also be established on the DeNB andthe Pico eNB respectively to transmit different data for the UE. Theabove-mentioned RN, Pico eNB and Home eNB may be collectively called asmicro base station. Certainly, the embodiments are not limited to thescenario of the heterogeneous network, and the first base station andthe second base station may be two independent base stations without anattachment relationship with each other.

In the following embodiments, the DeNB to which the UE belongs and theRN to which the UE belongs are taken as an example for illustration.

In the embodiments of the present invention, two solutions are adopted:

The first solution is an active initiating solution. An access networkentity such as UE, an RN to which the UE belongs or a DeNB to which theUE belongs initiates an EPS bearer establishment request to a corenetwork entity such as a public data network gateway (PDN-GW), amobility management entity (MME) or a serving gateway (S-GW), and thecore network entity receives the request and then instructs the DeNB towhich the UE belongs to establish a first EPS bearer based on a first CCand a second EPS bearer based on a second CC for the UE, wherein thefirst EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between the DeNB to which the UEbelongs and the UE and has the number of one or more, and the second EPSbearer is an EPS bearer between the RN to which the UE belongs and theUE and has the number of one or more. Or, after the core networkreceives the request and then instructs that the first base station towhich the UE owning the first EPS bearer of the first CC belongsdetermines to establish the second EPS bearer based on the second CC forthe UE, and then initiates a process of establishing the second EPSbearer for the UE. In this way, the UE may transmit data with the DeNBand the RN through the two EPS bearers respectively.

The second solution is an active establishing solution. A DeNB to whichUE belongs determines to establish a first EPS bearer and a second EPSbearer for the UE, and the DeNB to which the UE belongs establishes thefirst EPS bearer based on CC and the second EPS bearer based on CC forthe UE, wherein the first EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between the DeNBto which the UE belongs and the UE and has the number of one or more,and the second EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between an RN to which the UEbelongs and the UE and has the number of one or more. Or, after a firstbase station to which the UE owning the first EPS bearer of the first CCbelongs independently determines to establish the second EPS bearerbased on the second CC for the UE, and initiates a process ofestablishing the second EPS bearer for the UE. In this way, the UE maytransmit data with the DeNB and the RN through the two EPS bearersrespectively.

Specifically, the DeNB may establish a data radio bearer (DRB) for theUE with respect to the first EPS bearer to be established and assign acorresponding data radio bearer identifier (DRB ID). In a specificimplementation, the DeNB establishes one corresponding DRB for the UEwith respect to each EPS bearer to be established, and assigns onecorresponding DRB ID. That is to say, one bearer of the UE is called asan EPS bearer between the UE and a core network and correspondinglycalled as a DRB between the UE and the DeNB. In the embodiments of thepresent invention, an eNB or an RN establishing an EPS bearerestablished for a UE is equivalently called as establishing a DRB forthe UE. That is to say, when it is described that a first base stationestablishes one EPS bearer for a UE, it means that the first basestation establishes one DRB for the UE.

In the above-mentioned two embodiments of the embodiments of the presentinvention, the UE may also have owned the first EPS bearer between theUE and the DeNB to which the UE belongs or owned the second EPS bearerbetween the UE and the RN to which the UE belongs, but the throughput ofthe data transmitted by the UE can not be satisfied merely through thefirst EPS bearer or the second EPS bearer. At this moment, the accessnetwork entity actively initiates a process of requesting to establishthe EPS bearer or modify the EPS bearer, or the DeNB to which the UEbelongs performs a process of actively establishing the EPS bearer. Inthe above-mentioned process of establishing the EPS bearer, if the UEdoes not have other new service demand except the current service,within a certain period of time, the data volume sum of the datatransmitted by the established first EPS bearer and the data transmittedby the second EPS bearer is equal to the volume of data transmitted bythe unmodified first EPS bearer or the volume of data transmitted by theunmodified second EPS bearer. If the network simultaneously establishesa new service for the UE in the above-mentioned process of establishingthe EPS bearer, the data volume sum of the data transmitted by theestablished first EPS bearer and the data transmitted by the second EPSbearer is greater than the volume of data transmitted by the unmodifiedfirst EPS bearer or greater than the volume of data transmitted by theunmodified second EPS bearer.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method for establishing EPS bearersprovided in an embodiment of the present invention. The method includesthe steps as follows.

Step 401, a DeNB to which UE belongs establishes a first EPS bearerbased on a first CC for the UE, wherein the first EPS bearer is an EPSbearer between the DeNB to which the UE belongs and the UE and has thenumber of one or more; and

Step 402, the DeNB to which the UE belongs instructs an RN to which theUE belongs to establish a second EPS bearer based on a second CC for theUE, wherein the second EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between the RN towhich the UE belongs and the UE and has the number of one or more.

In this way, the UE may transmit data with the DeNB to which the UEbelongs through the established first EPS bearer and transmit data withthe RN to which the UE belongs through the established second EPSbearer.

FIG. 5 is a structural schematic diagram of a system for establishingEPS bearers provided in an embodiment of the present invention. Thesystem includes a UE, a DeNB to which the UE belongs and an RN to whichthe UE belongs.

The DeNB to which the UE belongs is configured to establish a first EPSbearer for the UE and instruct the RN to which the UE belongs toestablish a second EPS bearer for the UE, wherein the first EPS beareris an EPS bearer between the DeNB to which the UE belongs and the UE andhas the number of one or more, and the second EPS bearer is an EPSbearer between the RN to which the UE belongs and the UE and has thenumber of one or more.

The RN to which the UE belongs is configured to establish the second EPSbearer for the UE under the instruction of the DeNB to which the UEbelongs.

In the embodiment of the system, the system further includes an accessnetwork entity and a core network entity, wherein the access networkentity is configured to send, to the core network entity, a requestmessage for establishing an EPS bearer or a request message formodifying an EPS bearer for the UE.

The core network entity is configured to receive the request message forestablishing the EPS bearer or the request message for modifying the EPSbearer sent by the access network entity and instruct the DeNB to whichthe UE belongs to establish the first EPS bearer and the second EPSbearer for the UE.

In the embodiment of the system, the DeNB to which the UE belongs isfurther configured to determine to establish the first EPS bearer andthe second EPS bearer.

FIG. 6 is a structural schematic diagram of a first device forestablishing an EPS bearer provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention. The device may be a base station referred in the foregoingembodiments, and includes an establishing unit and an instructing unit.

The establishing unit is configured to establish a first EPS bearerbased on a first CC for UE, wherein the first EPS bearer is an EPSbearer between a first base station to which the UE belongs and the UE.

The instructing unit is configured to instruct a second base station towhich the UE belongs to establish a second EPS bearer based on a secondCC, wherein the second EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between the secondbase station to which the UE belongs and the UE.

The base station may further include a receiving unit, which isconfigured to receive an instruction sent by a core network entity forestablishing multiple EPS bearers based on multiple CCs for the UE, thentrigger the establishing unit to establish the first EPS bearer for theUE and trigger the instructing unit to instruct the second base stationto establish the second EPS bearer for the UE.

The base station may further include a determining unit, which isconfigured to independently determine to establish the first EPS bearerand the second EPS bearer for the UE, trigger the establishing unit toestablish the first EPS bearer for the UE and trigger the instructingunit to instruct the second base station to establish the second EPSbearer for the UE.

FIG. 7 is a structural schematic diagram of a second device forestablishing an EPS bearer provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention. The device may be a base station referred in the foregoingembodiments, and includes a determining unit and an initiating unit.

The determining unit is configured to determine to establish a secondEPS bearer based on a second CC for UE owning a first EPS bearer basedon a first CC and trigger the initiating unit.

The initiating unit is configured to initiate a process of establishingthe second EPS bearer for the UE.

The base station may further include a receiving unit, which isconfigured to receive an instruction sent by a core network entity forestablishing multiple EPS bearers based on multiple CCs for the UE andthen send the instruction to the determining unit.

The determining unit is configured to receive the instruction forestablishing the multiple EPS bearers based on the multiple CCs for theUE from the receiving unit and then determine to establish the secondEPS bearer based on the second CC.

The respective units in the embodiments of the devices shown in FIG. 6and FIG. 7 may specifically perform the flows described in theembodiments of the foregoing methods. These flows are not describedredundantly herein, and reference may be made to the embodiments of theforegoing methods.

The embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by taking twospecific embodiments below.

First Specific Embodiment

It is supposed that a UE has established a current first EPS bearer witha DeNB to which the UE belongs, and the UE adopts the active initiatingsolution to establish an EPS bearer. It is supposed that an accessnetwork entity therein is the UE and a core network entity is a PDN-GW.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a first specific embodiment of a method forestablishing EPS bearers provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention. The method includes the steps as follows.

Step 701, the UE sends an EPS bearer modification request to the PDN-GW.

In this step, specifically, the UE or an RN or a DeNB initiates an E-RAB(E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer) modification request message to requestthe PDN-GW or an S-GW or an MME for modifying the current single E-RABof the UE into multiple EPS bearers to transmit data.

Step 702, after the PDN-GW receives the EPS bearer modification request,the PDN-GW determines that the current first EPS bearer is to bemodified into a first EPS bearer and a second EPS bearer according tothe state information value of the data transmitted by the UE such as aQoS demand, determines respective establishing nodes of the first EPSbearer and the second EPS bearer, namely determines that the first EPSbearer is established at the DeNB and the second EPS bearer isestablished at the RN, and sends an EPS bearer update requestinstruction carrying instruction modification information to the DeNB towhich the UE belongs.

Step 703, the DeNB to which the UE belongs receives the EPS bearerupdate request instruction, and acquires information of the first EPSbearer and the second EPS bearer to be established.

In this step, the DeNB determines that the previous EPS bearer is to bemodified into two new EPS bearers, one of which is to be establishedlocally and the other one of which is to be established at the RN.

Step 704, the DeNB to which the UE belongs establishes the first EPSbearer for the UE, namely sends a radio resource control (RRC)connection reconfiguration message carrying information of thereconfigured first EPS bearer to the UE. The information of the firstEPS bearer includes an identifier of the EPS bearer, an identifier of acorrespondingly established DRB, a logical channel identifier, otheraccess layer parameters and the like.

Step 705, after the UE receives the RRC connection reconfigurationmessage and then performs the establishment of the first EPS bearer withthe DeNB to which the UE belongs according to the carried information ofthe reconfigured EPS bearer, the UE returns an RRC connectionreconfiguration complete message to the DeNB to which the UE belongs.

Step 706, the DeNB to which the UE belongs sends, to the RN to which theUE belongs, an EPS establishment request message, such as an E-RABestablishment request message, carrying information of the second EPSbearer to be established.

Step 707, after the RN to which the UE belongs receives the EPSestablishment request message, the RN sends an RRC connectionreconfiguration message carrying information of the reconfigured secondEPS bearer to the UE.

The information of the second EPS bearer includes an identifier of theEPS bearer, an identifier of a correspondingly established DRB, alogical channel identifier, other access layer parameters and the like.

Step 708, after the UE receives the RRC connection reconfigurationmessage and then performs the establishment of the second EPS bearerwith the RN to which the UE belongs according to the carried informationof the reconfigured second EPS bearer, the UE returns an RRC connectionreconfiguration complete message to the RN to which the UE belongs.

Before this step, if the UE is not connected with the RN to which the UEbelongs, a random access process is further needed.

In this specific embodiment, steps 704 to 705 and steps 706 to 708 maybe simultaneously performed, or steps 706 to 708 are performed firstlyand then steps 704 to 705 are performed, which is not limited herein.

In this specific embodiment, in step 702, the PDN-GW may also notdetermine the respective establishment nodes of the first EPS bearer andthe second EPS bearer, but directly send the EPS bearer update requestinstruction to the DeNB, to instruct the DeNB to modify the EPS bearerinto the first EPS bearer and the second EPS bearer; and in step 703,the DeNodB determines the respective establishment nodes of the firstEPS bearer and the second EPS bearer according to the state informationof the data transmitted by the UE, and the following steps areperformed. Herein, the DeNB needs to feedback the respectiveestablishment nodes of the first EPS bearer and the second EPS bearerdetermined by the DeNB back to the PDN-GW.

Alternatively, in this specific embodiment, in step 702, the PDN-GW mayalso not determine that the current first EPS bearer is to be modifiedinto the first EPS bearer and the second EPS bearer, but directly sendthe EPS bearer update request instruction carrying the UE identifier tothe DeNodB; and in step 703, the DeNodB determines that the currentfirst EPS bearer is to be modified into the first EPS bearer and thesecond EPS bearer according to the state information value of the datatransmitted by a UE with the UE identifier and determines the respectiveestablishment nodes, namely determines that the first EPS bearer isestablished at the DeNB and the second EPS bearer is established at theRN, and the following steps are performed.

In this specific embodiment, it may also be supposed that a UE hasestablished a current second EPS bearer with an RN to which the UEbelongs, and the processes are similar which will not be describedredundantly herein.

Second Specific Embodiment

It is supposed that a UE has established a current second EPS bearerwith an RN to which the UE belongs, and a DeNB to which the UE belongsadopts the active establishing solution to establish EPS bearer for theUE.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of a second specific embodiment of a method forestablishing EPS bearer provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention. The method includes the steps as follows.

Step 801, the DeNB to which the UE belongs determines that the DeNB towhich the UE belongs will share partial load of data transmitted by theUE for the RN to which the UE belongs, so a first EPS bearer needs to beestablished for the UE.

Before this step, the DeNB to which the UE belongs has independentlydetermined that a current second EPS bearer has been established betweenthe UE and the RN to which the UE belongs.

In this step, the established first EPS bearer is a virtual EPS bearer,that is to say, the first EPS bearer is invisible in core network.

Step 802, the DeNB to which the UE belongs sends an RRC connectionreconfiguration message to the UE, carrying reconfigured EPS bearerinformation, namely information of the first EPS bearer to beestablished. The information of the first EPS bearer includes anidentifier of an EPS bearer, an identifier of a correspondinglyestablished DRB, a logical channel identifier, other access layerparameters and the like.

In this step, a QoS parameter adopted by the established first EPSbearer is the same as a QoS parameter adopted by the current second EPSbearer, and the identifier of the first EPS bearer may be the same asidentifier of the current second EPS bearer herein.

Step 803, after the UE receives the RRC connection reconfigurationmessage and then performs establishment of the first EPS bearer with theDeNB to which the UE belongs according to the carried reconfigured EPSbearer information, the UE returns an RRC connection reconfigurationcomplete message to the DeNB to which the UE belongs.

In this step, if a synchronous connection has not been establishedpreviously between the UE and the DeNB to which the UE belongs, beforestep 803, the method further includes a random access process beingperformed between the UE and the DeNB to which the UE belongs, and asynchronous connection being established between the UE and the DeNB towhich the UE belongs.

Step 804, the DeNB to which the UE belongs sends, to the RN to which theUE belongs, an EPS establishment report message carrying the identifierof the UE and the information of the established first EPS bearer.

Step 805, after the RN to which the UE belongs receives the EPSestablishment report message, the RN sends an RRC connectionreconfiguration message carrying information of a second EPS bearer tobe established to the UE. The information of the second EPS bearerincludes an identifier of an EPS bearer, an identifier of acorrespondingly established DRB, a logical channel identifier, otheraccess layer parameters and the like.

Step 806, after the UE receives the RRC connection reconfigurationmessage and then performs establishment of the second EPS bearer withthe RN to which the UE belongs according to the carried information ofthe reconfigured second EPS bearer, the UE returns an RRC connectionreconfiguration complete message to the RN.

In the embodiment of FIG. 8, if a current second EPS bearer has existedbetween the UE and the RN to which the UE belongs, the current secondEPS bearer may be directly used as the second EPS bearer, namely theconfiguration parameter of the current second EPS bearer is notmodified, and step 806 and step 807 are not performed, which is notdescribed redundantly herein.

In this specific embodiment, it may also be supposed that a UE hasestablished a current first EPS bearer with a DeNB to which the UEbelongs, and the processes are similar which will not be describedredundantly herein.

By adopting the method provided in the embodiments of the presentinvention, the throughput of the data transmitted by the UE at the cellmargin governed by the cell to which the DeNB belongs may be improved,so that the throughput difference between the UE in the center of thecell and the UE at the margin of the cell is reduced, and the fairnessof data transmission performance of the UE is improved.

Through the description of the above implementations, those skilled inthe art may clearly realize that the present invention may be realizedby means of software and necessary general hardware or through hardware,but the former is a better implementation under many conditions. Basedon such an understanding, the technical solutions of the presentinvention substantially or the part of the present invention makingcontribution to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a softwareproduct, and the computer software product is stored in a readablestorage medium, such as a soft disk, a hard disk, an optical disk or thelike of a computer, which includes a plurality of instructions enablingcomputer equipment (which may be a personal computer, a server, networkequipment or the like) to execute the method of each embodiment of thepresent invention.

The foregoing descriptions are merely preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, rather than limiting the present invention. Anymodifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements and the like madewithin the spirit and principle of the present invention should beincluded in the protection scope of the present invention.

1. A method for establishing an evolved packet system (EPS) bearer,comprising: determining, by a first base station to which a userequipment (UE) owning a first EPS bearer based on a first componentcarrier (CC) belongs, to establish a second EPS bearer based on a secondCC for the UE; and initiating, by the first base station, a process ofestablishing the second EPS bearer for the UE.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the first EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between the first basestation and the UE; the initiating, by the first base station, theprocess of establishing the second EPS bearer for the UE comprises:instructing, by the first base station, a second base station toestablish the second EPS bearer for the UE, the second EPS bearer beingan EPS bearer between the second base station and the UE.
 3. The methodof claim 2, further comprising: before the second base stationestablishes the second EPS bearer for the UE, if a connection is notestablished between the second base station and the UE, establishing theconnection between the second base station and the UE.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first EPS bearer is an EPS bearer between a secondbase station and the UE; the initiating, by the first base station, theprocess of establishing the second EPS bearer for the UE comprises:establishing, by the first base station, the second EPS bearer for theUE, the second EPS bearer being an EPS bearer between the first basestation and the UE.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein before thedetermining to establish the second EPS bearer based on the second CCfor the UE, further comprising: receiving, by the first base station, aninstruction for establishing multiple EPS bearers based on multiple CCsfor the UE, which is sent by a core network entity; the core networkentity being a public data network gateway (PDN-GW), a mobilitymanagement entity (MME) or a serving gateway (S-GW).
 6. The method ofclaim 5, wherein before the first base station receives the instructionof the multiple EPS bearers, the method further comprises: sending, byan access network entity, a request message for establishing the EPSbearers or a request message for modifying the EPS bearers for the UE,to the core network entity to request to establish the multiple EPSbearers based on the multiple CCs; the access network entity being theUE, the first base station or the second base station.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first base station to which the UE belongs modifiesthe owned first EPS bearer based on the first CC; and a volume sum ofdata transmitted by the modified first EPS bearer and data transmittedby the second EPS bearer is equal to or greater than that by the firstEPS bearer based on the first CC before modification.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, wherein, after the second EPS bearer is established, a qualityof service parameter of the modified first EPS bearer and a quality ofservice parameter of the second EPS bearer are equal to a quality ofservice parameter of the non-modified first EPS bearer before the secondEPS bearer is established, respectively.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the first base station is a macro base station, and the secondbase station is a relay node attached to the macro base station or amicro base station within the coverage of the macro base station.
 10. Amethod for establishing an evolved packet system (EPS) bearer,comprising: establishing, by a first base station to which a userequipment (UE) belongs, a first EPS bearer based on a first componentcarrier (CC) for the UE, the first EPS bearer being an EPS bearerbetween the first base station and the UE; and instructing, by the firstbase station, a second base station to establish a second EPS bearerbased on a second CC for the UE, the second EPS bearer being an EPSbearer between the second base station and the UE.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, wherein before the establishing the first EPS bearer based onthe CC for the UE, further comprising: receiving, by the first basestation, an instruction for establishing multiple EPS bearers based onmultiple CCs for the UE, which is sent by a core network entity; thecore network entity being a public data network gateway (PDN-GW), amobility management entity (MME) or a serving gateway (S-GW).
 12. Themethod of claim 11, wherein before the first base station receives theinstruction of the multiple EPS bearers, the method further comprises:sending, by an access network entity, a request message for establishingthe EPS bearers or a request message for modifying the EPS bearers forthe UE, to the core network entity to request to establish the multipleEPS bearers based on the multiple CCs; the access network entity beingthe UE, the first base station or the second base station.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, wherein before the establishing the first EPS bearerbased on the CC for the UE, further comprising: independentlydetermining, by the first base station, to establish the first EPSbearer and the second EPS bearer for the UE.
 14. The method of claim 10,wherein the first base station is a macro base station, and the secondbase station is a relay node attached to the macro base station or amicro base station within the coverage of the macro base station. 15.The method of claim 10, further comprising: before the second basestation establishes the second EPS bearer based on the second CC for theUE, if a connection is not established between the second base stationand the UE, establishing the connection between the second base stationand the UE.
 16. A base station, comprising: a determining unit,configured to determine to establish a second evolved packet system(EPS) bearer based on a second component carrier (CC) for a userequipment (UE) owning a first EPS bearer based on a first CC and triggeran initiating unit; and the initiating unit, configured to initiate aprocess of establishing the second EPS bearer for the UE.
 17. The basestation of claim 16, further comprising: a receiving unit, configured toreceive an instruction for establishing multiple EPS bearers based onmultiple CCs for the UE sent by a core network entity and then send theinstruction to the determining unit; and wherein the determining unit isconfigured to receive the instruction for establishing the multiple EPSbearers based on the multiple CCs for the UE from the receiving unit andthen determine to establish the second EPS bearer based on the secondCC.
 18. A base station, comprising: an establishing unit, configured toestablish a first evolved packet system (EPS) bearer based on a firstcomponent carrier (CC) for a user equipment (UE), the first EPS bearerbeing an EPS bearer between the first base station to which the UEbelongs and the UE; and an instructing unit, configured to instruct asecond base station to which the UE belongs to establish a second EPSbearer based on a second CC for the UE, the second EPS bearer being anEPS bearer between the second base station to which the UE belongs andthe UE.
 19. The base station of claim 18, further comprising: areceiving unit, configured to receive an instruction for establishingmultiple EPS bearers based on multiple CCs for the UE sent by a corenetwork entity, and then trigger the establishing unit to establish thefirst EPS bearer for the UE and trigger the instructing unit to instructthe second base station to establish the second EPS bearer for the UE.20. The base station of claim 18, further comprising: a determiningunit, configured to independently determine to establish the first EPSbearer and the second EPS bearer for the UE, trigger the establishingunit to establish the first EPS bearer for the UE, and trigger theinstructing unit to instruct the second base station to establish thesecond EPS bearer for the UE.